Author Jamie Green is a firearms instructor in Arkansas. She holds certifications with the NRA, USCCA, Rangemaster Firearms, and The Complete Combatant to name a few. She is on the Board of Directors for Armed Women of America (aka TWAW Shooting Chapters, Inc.), and the FBI Citizen’s Academy Alumni. Jamie writes curriculum for the Boy Scouts of America Shooting Sports program and is passionate about helping her students on their personal protection journey regardless the path they choose.
Are you frustrated when you look at your target? Do you attend trainings and work hard only to keep getting the same results? You know you are properly applying the shooting fundamentals but the bull’s eye eludes you. What’s a guy/gal to do?
Maybe it’s time to evaluate your gun. Is it too big, too small, or “just right”? Just like a pair of shoes (or your unmentionables) your gun needs to fit properly. Remember finding a pair of shoes after trying on several and realizing, knowing, feeling ‘YES, these are the shoes’? Or maybe it was that driver that somehow magically puts your ball way down that fairway and sitting pretty. You can find that same feeling with your gun if you apply just a couple of principles.
If you have been shooting any time at all, you know that your gun must be easy for you to rack, and that the trigger needs to suit you. You have to be happy with the sights. But there are just a few more things to check before you ‘check out’ at the register. The key is ‘frame size’. It’s important that the frame size is matched to your hand, just as a shoe is fitted to your foot.
To check gun fit, follow a few simple steps. Holding the gun in your dominant hand, extend your arm toward the floor, keeping your arm and wrist straight. Does the back of the gun create an imaginary straight line all the way up your arm to your shoulder? It should do so. Next, is your basal thumb joint (the joint at the base of the thumb right next to where the thumb joins the hand) sitting on the side of the gun rather than behind the gun? It should be. Make sure the gun is in this position in your hand (left side of picture).
Next, place your finger on the trigger. The finger should sit ‘in front’ of the trigger, rather than at the edge. Do you have any room between your trigger finger and the frame of the gun? (You should have just enough room to get the tip of your pinkie or a pencil between your finger and the gun’s frame). Do you have to adjust your hand around the grip in order to reach the trigger properly? (If you do, then the imaginary straight line has just been erased). Answering ‘yes’ to the last two questions may indicate you have a gun with a frame that is too large for you. While you will still be able to operate the gun, you may not be getting the results at the target you desire. Your slow shots may be ok, but if you are shooting rapidly or under pressure, the shot placement may spread far and wide.
Finding a gun that fits your hand properly is an important aspect of accurate shooting. Think back to that feeling when you found THOSE perfect shoes (or driver). If your gun doesn’t fit, then keep searching. I promise there is a Goldilocks gun out there, one that is “just right”.